We, the undersigned Marylanders, call on the Maryland General Assembly to repeal “Maryland My Maryland” as the official State Song and replace it with “Maryland My Maryland: the Free State Song.”

For more than 80 years, our beloved Maryland has had a dreadful state song written by a pro-Confederate propagandist.  It refers to Abraham Lincoln as a “Tyrant” and “Despot” and denounces the Union forces—which included thousands of loyal patriotic Marylanders—as “Northern Scum.”

The Maryland General Assembly has refused for decades to repeal the official designation of this racist song. Its defenders say we simply have nothing to replace it with. 
       
Now we do. Musician Steve Jones and Congressman Jamie Raskin have collaborated to write this extraordinary song about our state, celebrating its natural history, its beauty, its geographic and cultural diversity, and its commitment to the struggle for freedom and justice for all, not secession and violence. (You can listen to a recording of “Maryland My Maryland: The Free State Song” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjSUts6o2uw)

We call on the General Assembly in the 2021 Session to hear the new music of our times by repealing the old disgraceful State song and replacing it with the beautiful and unifying “Maryland My Maryland: The Free State Song.”